The Street

In this beguiling collection of short stories and memoirs, first published in 1969, Mordecai Richler looks back on his childhood in Montreal, recapturing the lively panorama of St. Urbain Street: the refugees from Europe with their unexpected sophistication and snobbery; the catastrophic day when there was an article about St. Urbain Street in Time; Tansky’s Cigar and Soda with its “beat-up brown phonebooth” used for “private calls”; and tips on sex from Duddy Kravitz.

Overflowing with humour, nostalgia, and wisdom, The Street is a brilliant introduction to Richler’s lifelong love-affair with St. Urbain Street and its inhabitants.

Novelist and journalist, screenwriter and editor, Mordecai Richler (1931—2001) spent much of his career chronicling, celebrating, and criticizing the Montreal and the Canada of his youth.

William Weintraub has been a reporter, writer, director, and film producer. His most recent book is Getting Started, a memoir of, among other things, the early days of his lifelong friendship with Mordecai Richler